Why doesn't \pagestyle{empty} work on the first page of a chapter?

Question

Here's a minimal case of the problem:

\documentclass{book}

\pagestyle{empty}

\begin{document}

\chapter{The first}

This page has a page number\ldots

\newpage

\ldots but not this one.

\end{document}

I've surmised (by removing it) that the problem has something to do with the \chapter line. But what caused this issue and how do I correct it?

I had to look at \ldots twice, I thought it said \idiots. – Nicholas Hamilton May 25 '13 at 13:41 — Nicholas Hamilton, May 25 '13 at 13:41

Gonzalo Medina · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-02T21:47:56.110

53

The page style for the first page of a chapter is set internally (in the book and report document classes) to be plain; you can change this behaviour by adding the following lines to the preamble of your document:

\makeatletter
\renewcommand\chapter{\if@openright\cleardoublepage\else\clearpage\fi
                    \thispagestyle{empty}% original style: plain
                    \global\@topnum\z@
                    \@afterindentfalse
                    \secdef\@chapter\@schapter}
\makeatother

or, using the etoolbox package:

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\patchcmd{\chapter}{plain}{empty}{}{}

If the plain style is not needed elsewhere, then you can redefine it to be the empty page style; this can be done with:

\makeatletter
  \let\ps@plain\ps@empty
\makeatother

Finally, in the scrbook document class (from the KOMA-Script bundle), the style for the first page of chapters can be changed simply by redefining the \chapterpagestyle command, as in:

\renewcommand*\chapterpagestyle{empty}

EDIT: added egreg's remarks.

edited Jun 02 '11 at 21:47

answered Jun 02 '11 at 21:18

Gonzalo Medina

505,128

8

If one doesn't need the plain pagestyle elsewhere, the easiest way is to say \let\ps@plain\ps@empty (surrounded by the usual pair of commands). Your code can be simplified with etoolbox as \patchcmd{\chapter}{plain}{empty}{}{} – egreg Jun 02 '11 at 21:26
1

@egreg: yes. I will add theses remarks to my answer. Thank you. – Gonzalo Medina Jun 02 '11 at 21:28
3

It always surprises me how quickly questions are answered (especially when I plan to self-answer). I appreciate knowing other ways to do things, however. So thanks. When I've had this issue in the past, I almost always want to change just one chapter and not every chapter in a document, so \thispagestyle is the usual solution. – Jon Ericson Jun 02 '11 at 21:38

score 33 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 02 '11 at 21:15

33

The \chapter command internally uses \thispagestyle{plain}. Add \thispagestyle{empty} immediately after \chapter.

\documentclass{book}

\pagestyle{empty}

\begin{document}

\chapter{The first}
\thispagestyle{empty}

This page has a page number\ldots

\newpage

\ldots but not this one.

\end{document}

answered Jun 02 '11 at 21:15

lockstep

250,273

I've had this problem at least twice and probably many more times, so I figured writing (and answering) this question would help me remember. I'll likely accept this answer when I'm able. Thanks. – Jon Ericson Jun 02 '11 at 21:21
@Jon: Actually, I like your answer better. – lockstep Jun 02 '11 at 21:24
This is a good solution for setting the page style to empty for specific chapters, rather than all of them. – australis Sep 12 '19 at 12:26

score 13 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

The reason this happens is that the \chapter macro resets the pagestyle for that page. It makes sense when you think about it since you usually want the first page of a chapter to look different than other pages. For instance, if the page number normally sits on the top of the page, you will want to move it to the bottom of the chapter title page. It would look strange otherwise.

There are a number of fixes for the problem, but the easiest is to put \thispagestyle{empty} immediately after the \chapter macro.

If you'd rather change every chapter page, you could use the memoir class and redefine the chapter pagestyle:

\makepagestyle{chapter}

Why doesn't \pagestyle{empty} work on the first page of a chapter?

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